Ukrainian parliament votes for two of three EU integration bills

The bill abolishes prosecutors' supervision over law compliance and law enforcement

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EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

KIEV, November 9 (Itar-Tass) - Ukrainian parliament adopted the presidential bill on the prosecution service Friday. A new law on prosecution is one of Brussels’ requirements for the association agreement with Ukraine.

The bill abolishes prosecutors' supervision over law compliance and law enforcement. Besides, it suggests narrowing the prosecutors' authority in representing individuals or the state in courts. Instead, free secondary legal consultations are to be introduced not from January 2017, but from July 1, 2014. Lastly, in order to prevent abuse of power for simplified collection of evidence, prosecutors are prohibited from gathering evidence outside litigation.

The parliament also approved in the first reading the EU integration bill introduced by the ruling Party of Regions to amend the law “On elections of people's deputies”. In particular, the bill is to ban gerrymandering that was frequent previously, introduce compulsory disclosure of costs and the location of electioneering ads for transparency purposes and supervision over the mass media's observance of electoral legislation. Should the bill be adopted, the central election commission will be empowered to register candidates’ electioneering agents, because the make-up of district commissions is determined much later than the registration of candidates begins.